This story begins nearly 30 years ago.
When a student, my first owned camera was a Yashica FX-D Quartz. It was supposed to be a "smart choice", as I had in mind sooner or later to replace the Yashinons with the Carl Zeiss lenses made for Contax, while keeping the solid and robust FX-D with its excellent electronic shutter and sensitive lightmeter. However, as the years passed by, Contax Zeiss' lenses were always terribly expensive. At the end, tired of waiting, I traded everything for a Canon system (and later for a Nikon system etc., but let's not digress).
Fast forward 20 years or so. I've found out that now-and-then Zeiss runs a production of lenses with the 42mm thread mount, which go under the "ZS series" name. Long gone my dear FX-D Quartz, I thought that perhaps this was the chance to finally have the Zeiss Planar for 35mm that I longed so much to own in my early youth, and at the same time the chance to revive my Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer "Icarex 35 S", in the TM version (= 42mm thread mount), that sat almost unused on a shelf.
The building quality of the Icarex is superb, and it is basically of a quality unknown to those who never owned a German camera; I will only mention the fact that it has no foams or velvets anywhere because all the joins are shaped in order to be lightight. No rotten foam, no maintenance. It is, however, a BIG and heavy camera, that would make a Nikkormat look pocketable by comparison. Not all lenses would fit it well aesthetically, as they would look ridicolously misporoportioned; however the Zeiss Planar is in turn a huge and heavy lens, and the two complement each other beautifully. The Planar has itself an excellent building quality: it feels terrific to the touch, has an 11-blades diaphragm (and the aperture numbers are exactly where they should be in order to appear in the finder!), comes with a metal hood and features also the classic "auto-manual" switch typical of 42mm lenses.
So, here are the two together, for those who like beautiful photographies and beautiful cameras alike. They wheigh a ton and they're handsome. Hope you enjoy!
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When a student, my first owned camera was a Yashica FX-D Quartz. It was supposed to be a "smart choice", as I had in mind sooner or later to replace the Yashinons with the Carl Zeiss lenses made for Contax, while keeping the solid and robust FX-D with its excellent electronic shutter and sensitive lightmeter. However, as the years passed by, Contax Zeiss' lenses were always terribly expensive. At the end, tired of waiting, I traded everything for a Canon system (and later for a Nikon system etc., but let's not digress).
Fast forward 20 years or so. I've found out that now-and-then Zeiss runs a production of lenses with the 42mm thread mount, which go under the "ZS series" name. Long gone my dear FX-D Quartz, I thought that perhaps this was the chance to finally have the Zeiss Planar for 35mm that I longed so much to own in my early youth, and at the same time the chance to revive my Zeiss Ikon Voigtländer "Icarex 35 S", in the TM version (= 42mm thread mount), that sat almost unused on a shelf.
The building quality of the Icarex is superb, and it is basically of a quality unknown to those who never owned a German camera; I will only mention the fact that it has no foams or velvets anywhere because all the joins are shaped in order to be lightight. No rotten foam, no maintenance. It is, however, a BIG and heavy camera, that would make a Nikkormat look pocketable by comparison. Not all lenses would fit it well aesthetically, as they would look ridicolously misporoportioned; however the Zeiss Planar is in turn a huge and heavy lens, and the two complement each other beautifully. The Planar has itself an excellent building quality: it feels terrific to the touch, has an 11-blades diaphragm (and the aperture numbers are exactly where they should be in order to appear in the finder!), comes with a metal hood and features also the classic "auto-manual" switch typical of 42mm lenses.
So, here are the two together, for those who like beautiful photographies and beautiful cameras alike. They wheigh a ton and they're handsome. Hope you enjoy!
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